Jackson County officials restoring floor of government building to 1930s grandeur

CITIZEN PATRIOT | KATIE RAUSCHMatt Bahorski, a glazier with Thompson Glass, presses a stained glass window into place during restoration work Wednesday morning at the Jackson County Towers Building. Each stained glass window has a life of about 75 years.

Almost two years ago, workers began to peel away layers that for decades had been hiding the ornate details of the Jackson County Tower Building’s second floor.

In less than a month, local residents could see the fruits of their labor.

The county hopes to complete work by May on a renovated second floor that is being restored to its 1930s luster.

The former bank lobby and county board chambers will be transformed into a customer service area housing the county treasurer, register of deeds and equalization department. A county clerk’s office staff member also could be placed there.

Workers are completing repairs to the floor’s tall stained glass windows and wood paneling that surrounds the almost 7,200 square-foot room. Carpeting around the perimeter of the room and furniture must still be installed, and officials are waiting for the arrival of three-tiered chandeliers designed to look similar to the former bank lobby’s light fixtures.

The building’s historic features were too impressive to leave hidden, said Ric Scheele, the county’s director of fleet and facilities operations.

Repairs to the room’s vaulted ceiling adorned with multi-colored plaster designs have been completed and were hand-painted by county facilities staff over the course of five months.

The $321,000 project, which has been considered for nearly two decades, is meant to improve efficiency and make county offices more accessible to the public. Visitors to the building now must bounce from floor to floor if they need access to multiple services.

“We don’t want them to see three departments, we want them to see people who can help them,” said interim county Administrator Adam Brown.

The county wanted to maintain the historic identity of the room but provide a modernized workspace for county staff, Brown said. The floor’s public service computers will allow easier access to county treasurer, register of deeds and equalization records, he said.

CITIZEN PATRIOT | KATIE RAUSCHThe plaster ceiling of the Jackson County Tower Building's second floor underwent extensive restoration over the past two years. The new space will be open to the public in May.

Locating the departments on one floor could create more opportunities for collaboration and help maintain service levels as the county’s workforce thins.

The county board chambers was relocated to the renovated fifth floor of the building, 120 W. Michigan Ave., as part of the project.

The effort was supported by the county’s capital improvement fund, which is fed by interest on delinquent taxes. Window repairs were funded separately by $138,275 from an energy efficiency conservation grant through the federal stimulus, Scheele said.

Construction on the tower building, which was once occupied by the Union & Peoples National Bank, was completed in 1929 and cost nearly $1.3 million. It was designed by renowned Detroit architect Albert Kahn, and his handiwork can still be seen in some of the building’s motifs, Scheele said.

Kahn’s architectural firm also designed Detroit’s Fisher Building and National Theatre, along with a number of other buildings and factories across the nation.

Most of the renovation work on the second floor was completed in house by county staff, who used a cache of salvaged materials, including original wood paneling and marble, that were set aside in its basement.

Scheele said the county wanted to use as much of the building’s original materials as possible in the restoration.

“For me it’s a once-in-a-lifetime project,” he said. “Just the fact that Jackson has something like this is truly amazing.”